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Mr. Driller Drill Spirits Review - DS

Originating on the Dreamcast and Game Boy Colour, Mr. Driller is slowly but surely establishing himself in the gaming community as a known character. He's been on Playstation, mobile phones, and even the PC, but will he survive in a world of touching? Mr. Driller Drill Spirit's offers a new and unique way of tackling those deep and dark yet colourful mines by the use of the Nintendo DS touch screen, and it definitely adds a twist to the gameplay. It may be set up the same way, sort of a reverse Tetris type game for those unfamiliar with Mr. Driller, but nearly every game we've played on the DS has been a new and unique experience.

Gameplay

In a standard Mr. Driller game the idea is to get to the bottom of the mine to save all the miners. The only problem is, the mine breaks down all around you, and you can run out of breath. Racing down to the bottom as fast as you can is usually a good idea, but sometimes the more times you drill, the more air you lose, so it's better to think strategically in order to get all the bricks lined up, allowing for a good combo. The brick colours range as much as colours of the rainbow, however sometimes you'll only have to tackle two or three colours at a time. The harder levels have several colours which makes combos difficult to pull off.

You don't need to use any of the buttons in Mr. Driller Drill Spirit's which we found very innovative. All you do is push on the screen with your stylus where you want Mr. Driller (or one of the other unlockable characters) to go, and he'll go there. Drilling is as easy as tapping once on the blocks, unless they're rocks in which case you'll have to dig at them for a little while. You have to watch out for the rocks because they often take away a large amount of your air supply. Never fear though, there are lots of air tablets lying around which replenishes your air bar a little bit.

There are only two different ways to die in the straight forward game in Mr. Driller: Drill Spirit's: You can run out of air, or you can get crushed by falling blocks. In the other modes of gameplay however, you can get attacked by other things. The other main gameplay mode is Pressure Driller which sets you against a massive drill. You have to dig your little heart out to escape it, but inevitably most of the time it will catch up with you. The massive drill can be viewable on the top screen, and you can watch it merge on to the touch screen as it desecrates anything in it's path… including you!

Your HUD is basically all over the screen. The (continued next page)